Latest / Epic Entrepreneurs / Alli & Whitney Balabanis, Vero Beach Dumpster Rentals
Transcript
- 0:45SPEAKER_04: Hi everyone, welcome to this week's episode of Epic Entrepreneurs.
- 0:49SPEAKER_04: I am Cliff McCray with Action Coach Business Growth Partners, where we work with local business owners to turn big ideas into real scalable growth.
- 0:59SPEAKER_04: Today I'm excited to be joined by Ali Balabanis with Vero Beach Dumpster Rental.
- 1:05SPEAKER_04: Ali, how are you doing today?
- 1:07SPEAKER_00: Good.
- 1:07SPEAKER_00: How are you?
- 1:08SPEAKER_04: I'm doing wonderful, wonderful, doing great, and very much looking forward to talking with you and kind of learn more about what you got going on at Vera Beach.
- 1:15SPEAKER_02: Okay, yeah.
- 1:17SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
- 1:17SPEAKER_04: So if you don't mind, let's go ahead and jump right into it.
- 1:19SPEAKER_04: So, you know, kind of tell me a little bit about it.
- 1:21SPEAKER_04: What is what do you got going on there at Vero Beach, you know, Vero Beach Dumpster and Rental?
- 1:25SPEAKER_04: Tell us a little bit about what you're doing for the community.
- 1:27SPEAKER_00: Okay, so we started about two years ago, January of 2025.
- 1:34SPEAKER_00: We're, you know, based out of Vero Beach, but we we service the surrounding areas, which is in Florida is called the Treasure Coast.
- 1:43SPEAKER_00: Vero Beach South is considered the Treasure Coast, and then north, right north of Vero Beach is like Melbourne area.
- 1:53SPEAKER_00: It's called the Space Coast.
- 1:54SPEAKER_00: That's where like Cocoa Beach is, where you have like your SpaceX is is stationed there, and you have all your rocket launches.
- 2:05SPEAKER_00: That's that's a pretty popular area for that.
- 2:08SPEAKER_00: So we service most of that area and then down into the treasure coast, down close to around Jupiter.
- 2:16SPEAKER_04: Okay.
- 2:17SPEAKER_04: Okay, good deal, good deal.
- 2:19SPEAKER_04: Now, Ali, you know, what do you have going on personally?
- 2:22SPEAKER_04: Who is Ali Balabanis and, you know, kind of what do you got going on in your personal life?
- 2:25SPEAKER_04: Any hobbies or anything?
- 2:28SPEAKER_00: Well, I have four four dogs that I love, like my children.
- 2:34SPEAKER_00: So, you know, one of my favorite things to do is to go up near where you are in the mountains, you know, take we take like short mini vacations there, like four, four or five days, and take them up there and go hiking around and exploring.
- 2:51SPEAKER_00: I like the water a lot, which is why I brought up live in Florida.
- 2:56SPEAKER_00: Um you know, I love going to the beach, I love going out in the ocean, fishing, like stuff like that.
- 3:04unknown: Okay.
- 3:04SPEAKER_00: Outdoorsy, definitely a de outdoorsy person.
- 3:07SPEAKER_04: Outdoorsy person, yeah, yeah.
- 3:09SPEAKER_04: Now, you know, I always ask people that come out from Florida, do you know, do you do you mind the year-round, you know, kind of warmth?
- 3:15SPEAKER_04: Or how do you feel about that?
- 3:17SPEAKER_00: I prefer it.
- 3:18SPEAKER_00: Like as we were talking about earlier, I'm originally from Virginia Beach in Virginia, so which is another beach beach town.
- 3:27SPEAKER_00: However, they still have winters there.
- 3:29SPEAKER_00: It gets pretty cold there.
- 3:31SPEAKER_00: So my hometown, I love my hometown.
- 3:34SPEAKER_00: Very grateful that I grew up there.
- 3:36SPEAKER_00: If you could take the winters away, I probably would have stayed there forever.
- 3:40SPEAKER_00: So that's kind of what brought me to Florida.
- 3:42SPEAKER_00: Is this just the winter time?
- 3:44SPEAKER_00: I love like the norm the warm weather.
- 3:47SPEAKER_00: It does get really hot here, but I take that over, you know, cold.
- 3:53SPEAKER_04: You take that over cold.
- 3:54SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
- 3:55SPEAKER_04: And does Virginia Beach get a lot of snow?
- 3:57SPEAKER_04: I don't think they do really, right?
- 4:00SPEAKER_00: So if you live in Virginia Beach, it can be considered a lot of snow because Virginia Beach, you know, it it's a beach town, so they're not really I would say that they they're not really equipped to handle like dense amounts of snow.
- 4:16SPEAKER_00: So whenever it does snow, it shuts everything down.
- 4:19SPEAKER_00: The schools were shut down, everything gets shut down over like a few, you know, inches of snow.
- 4:24SPEAKER_00: It's mainly the ice there.
- 4:27SPEAKER_00: It it ices over there.
- 4:29SPEAKER_00: So but if you ask somebody who's maybe from like New York or Michigan, they'll look at you like you're crazy if you say Virginia Beach gets a lot of snow.
- 4:38SPEAKER_00: So I guess it's all who depends on who you ask, but yeah, it's all relative.
- 4:42SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
- 4:43SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 4:43SPEAKER_00: Any snow is too much snow, in my opinion.
- 4:46SPEAKER_04: So, Ali, take me back to the beginning.
- 4:50SPEAKER_04: You know, what kind of made you look at the dumpster rental business and say, you know, there's a real opportunity here in Viral Beach?
- 4:57SPEAKER_00: So a little bit about me.
- 5:00SPEAKER_00: Before I was a truck driver for the last like 12, almost 13, maybe 14 years now.
- 5:08SPEAKER_00: I did local CDL Class A truck driving.
- 5:14SPEAKER_00: I worked for a company, a pretty big company called Cisco food service, they deliver like hospitals, restaurants, jails, schools.
- 5:22SPEAKER_00: I did that for a long time.
- 5:25SPEAKER_00: I took a took a step away from that and went a little bit not over the road, but regional.
- 5:31SPEAKER_00: And I worked for Walmart transportation as a truck driver for them for a year and a half, and that although the job was great, they treated us great, the lifestyle of just being over the road constantly was just not for me.
- 5:45SPEAKER_00: I want to sleep in my own bed and shower in my own shower.
- 5:48SPEAKER_00: So, you know, I just kind of I came back, went back to Cisco after my little exploring with Walmart.
- 5:57SPEAKER_00: And you know, I was doing that job for a long time, and I just thought to myself, like, you know, I want to be able to a job, in my opinion, is a tool to live, you know, the kind of lifestyle that you want to live.
- 6:10SPEAKER_00: So, and once I was able to accomplish everything I wanted to accomplish with that job, I kind of was driving the truck every day and just like now, now what?
- 6:19SPEAKER_00: What do I what do I want to do?
- 6:21SPEAKER_00: So I really like, you know, to try to help people.
- 6:26SPEAKER_00: I wanted to kind of have a tool, I I I wanted the tool, you know, that provided my lifestyle to be able to help me help other people.
- 6:37SPEAKER_00: So I wanted a way to be able to really give back to, you know, not only this community that I live in in Bero, but even back, you know, in my hometown, eventually one day be able to give back to that community as well, the one that raised me.
- 6:52SPEAKER_00: So I was like, what can I do, you know, that I can use the skills that I have, you know, I have all these years of driving experience, you know, DOT regulation knowledge, safety, you know, safely transport transportation, you know, in a safe manner.
- 7:08SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, what can I do, you know, that I can still use this?
- 7:12SPEAKER_00: So I guess I kind of got tired of driving everybody else's trucks, and I'm like, you know what?
- 7:17SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna, I looked at maybe doing like hot shot transportation, which is, you know, you'll see on the interstate like like an F450 size truck, and they'll have, you know, a car trailer on the back of them with like three or four cars.
- 7:35SPEAKER_00: Those are considered hotshot drivers, where they don't necessarily use a semi, but they do try that's their business, is they they transport goods, you know, in a regional area.
- 7:46SPEAKER_00: But then that brought me back to I don't want to be gone every day.
- 7:49SPEAKER_00: I would like to be home every day.
- 7:51SPEAKER_00: So I looked at something that was more localized and I landed in to dump some rentals.
- 7:57SPEAKER_00: And you know, trash, trash isn't going anywhere.
- 8:00SPEAKER_00: So everybody's gonna have trash.
- 8:02SPEAKER_00: So that's kind of how I ended up here.
- 8:04SPEAKER_04: Okay, okay.
- 8:06SPEAKER_04: Now we know you serve homeowners, contractors, and commercial customers.
- 8:11SPEAKER_04: Now, which type of customer has surprised you the most in terms of demand and repeat business?
- 8:16SPEAKER_00: For sure, it'd be your contractors.
- 8:18SPEAKER_00: We love all of our customers, you know, our residential customers, they're great.
- 8:23SPEAKER_00: But when you really think about dumpster rentals in a residential manner, how many times do you go through and like purge your house where you need an entire dumpster?
- 8:34SPEAKER_00: So it probably maybe once a year, Matt at the most.
- 8:39SPEAKER_00: But generally those residential customers are every few years.
- 8:44SPEAKER_00: Your contractors is where you get into like building strong relationships with them where they'll, you know, I have contractors that use us, have dumpsters with us on multiple sites every week.
- 8:56SPEAKER_00: So, you know, the more the more commercial the side of it is where you'll really, you know, get momentum and and to be able to scale and grow your dumpster rental business.
- 9:12SPEAKER_04: Now, I know, you know, from the outside looking in, you know, dumpster rental sounds simple, right?
- 9:17SPEAKER_04: Drop it off, pick it up, but you're dealing with routing, delivery windows, you know, disposable costs, container availability, and customer communication.
- 9:26SPEAKER_04: What did you underestimate when you first got into this business?
- 9:30SPEAKER_00: Oh, wow.
- 9:31SPEAKER_00: I underestimated a lot.
- 9:33SPEAKER_00: So this could be a longer answer.
- 9:36SPEAKER_00: The the so when you start a dumpster rental business, a lot of people think that, oh, I'm gonna buy, you know, a package, because they they have packages where you can buy a roll-off trailer with like three cans, and I'm gonna buy that package and I'm gonna start with the pickup truck that I have, which is great.
- 9:58SPEAKER_00: If you can do that, that's great.
- 10:01SPEAKER_00: They don't factor in the cost of insurance on that because now you're running commercial, so your insurance, especially in the state of Florida, is going to skyrocket compared to what you're used to.
- 10:13SPEAKER_00: A lot of people don't factor that in or do the research.
- 10:16SPEAKER_00: So that was a surprise.
- 10:18SPEAKER_00: I knew that that, like because of my history in commercial transportation, I knew that insurance was going to be a huge factor as far as the costs.
- 10:28SPEAKER_00: So I was I was prepared for that.
- 10:31SPEAKER_00: But the cost of equipment, this is a very capital and equipment heavy business to get into three cans, you're you'll be able to maybe do, you know, it part-time, but the more cans you have is where you're really gonna be able to start to pick up momentum and scale.
- 10:52SPEAKER_00: So you have to be very conscious in the beginning of what you're spending your money on.
- 10:57SPEAKER_00: To be honest, I had to keep my job in in my CDL job while I started this business to be able to fund purchasing more and more equipment and to be able to per uh fund the marketing.
- 11:13SPEAKER_00: Dumpster rentals can be a really saturated market because there is a low cost to entry.
- 11:18SPEAKER_00: However, a lot of the times the people that buy that package and then don't do their research, they do end up falling out of the business.
- 11:27SPEAKER_00: So because they realize you know it's a lot more expensive than they anticipated.
- 11:31SPEAKER_00: So that's how I did it.
- 11:35SPEAKER_00: I had to basically keep my full-time job and balance the two for a little over a year to fund and really get get my name out there.
- 11:45SPEAKER_00: I haven't I went so like went full-time on the business only about six, seven months ago.
- 11:53SPEAKER_00: So, you know, it took it's it's it's definitely a grind in the beginning, balancing everything and just, you know, mentally working through, you know, so there's been times where I've sat and yeah, and thought, like, what am I doing?
- 12:11SPEAKER_00: Putting myself through this, balance, trying to balance two full-time jobs, but you know, that's just what you gotta do to get to get going.
- 12:19SPEAKER_04: So yeah.
- 12:21SPEAKER_04: Okay, okay.
- 12:22SPEAKER_04: Now we're gonna get into the you know, the real nitty-gritty here, because I I don't know if I told you this, but we have a nice size entrepreneur, small entrepreneurial audience that listens to the podcast with us every week.
- 12:32SPEAKER_04: So this is kind of kind of picking your brain here a little bit.
- 12:34SPEAKER_04: You'll need to be a little bit vulnerable, but this is kind of the good question here that people a lot of people like to hear.
- 12:39SPEAKER_04: So, what would you see is the biggest challenge you're dealing with in the business right now in this economic climate?
- 12:48SPEAKER_00: You know, I would say uh I there's the the decision making of being an entrepreneur is like listen, I'm new to it.
- 12:58SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna pretend like I, you know, know, you know, how it is.
- 13:04SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm literally getting my feet wet with, you know, what comes with being an entrepreneur.
- 13:10SPEAKER_00: So, but as of right now, like so far into this journey, I I just making decisions.
- 13:17SPEAKER_00: Like you don't, it's it's very difficult to know, you know, when's the right time for this or when's the right, when is it, is it too soon?
- 13:26SPEAKER_00: Is it too, is it, do you need to move now?
- 13:29SPEAKER_00: For example, right now I have I have two big decisions in front of me.
- 13:35SPEAKER_00: Do I, you know, I just took myself full time, like I said, six, seven months ago, that was a huge jump, knowing, is it too soon?
- 13:46SPEAKER_00: Is it time to make that jump?
- 13:48SPEAKER_00: And then and ultimately I did, I made the jump, and it's it's paid off because it's opened me up to a lot more of larger commercial contracts, being able to service those customers and build those relationships with these contractors.
- 14:03SPEAKER_00: And now I turn around and I'm faced with another one.
- 14:07SPEAKER_00: Okay, I'm getting so busy that I am in the truck 100% of the time, all day, every day, you know, 10 to 12, 14 hours every single day.
- 14:17SPEAKER_00: So now I'm now I'm being faced with is it time to hire somebody?
- 14:22SPEAKER_00: And if I hire somebody, do I need to buy a second truck?
- 14:26SPEAKER_00: So it's like you get out of one big decision-making process and you jump right into another one.
- 14:32SPEAKER_00: So that's that I definitely underestimated, you know, the difficulty of that.
- 14:37SPEAKER_00: But I'm working through it and honestly, I wouldn't really have it any other way.
- 14:42SPEAKER_00: I'm very grateful that I'm being faced with these decisions now.
- 14:46SPEAKER_00: There was a point in my time in my life where I wanted, where I asked for this.
- 14:50SPEAKER_04: So And you got it.
- 14:51SPEAKER_04: Be careful with transport sometimes, right?
- 14:54SPEAKER_00: Yes.
- 14:55SPEAKER_04: So you know, ultimately, what do you believe is kind of keeping Varyl B stumps or rental from reaching its next level and its ultimate potential?
- 15:07SPEAKER_00: You know, probably me uh making these decisions, you know, whether I kind of pause on them or I don't necessarily jump on them.
- 15:16SPEAKER_00: I try to take a little bit of time and think about them and consider them.
- 15:19SPEAKER_00: And a lot of people would say that that costs you a lot of money, which it it definitely does.
- 15:24SPEAKER_00: We contract out a lot of uh a lot of work as far as larger scale cans that maybe our equipment, for example, like a 30-yard, 40-yard can, our equipment that we have right now can't necessarily carry those fully loaded.
- 15:40SPEAKER_00: So in order to jump into that, we would need, I need to make the jump into the bigger truck.
- 15:46SPEAKER_00: And and I've just been a little bit cautious about doing that.
- 15:50SPEAKER_00: So with that being said, that brings you into that takes me back to, like I said a little bit ago, that this is a very like capital equipment heavy business when you for you know to get into.
- 16:04SPEAKER_00: And when you're a brand new business, you know, it's very hard to get to get like loans and funding for things as a brand new business.
- 16:13SPEAKER_00: So if you don't have the personal credit or you don't have, you know, an immense amount of cash flow behind you, it can be pretty difficult to get into the larger equipment that is needed.
- 16:27SPEAKER_00: Like I said, I kept my job for a long time to fund everything to where I, you know, to where I can live off of this this career.
- 16:35SPEAKER_00: So and now I'm kind of at the next step where I have to get some funding to get into the larger equipment, which I've been able to do so, but it's it's definitely a little bit more expensive than it would be if I was a 10-year-old business versus a two-year-old business.
- 16:53SPEAKER_04: So now I know you're running a business where things can change quickly, right?
- 16:59SPEAKER_04: I mean, customers can call, schedules can move, equipment has to be available, and problems have to get solved.
- 17:05SPEAKER_04: So, what have you learned about yourself since becoming a business owner?
- 17:09SPEAKER_00: I'm a lot more capable than I than I originally gave myself credit for, to be honest.
- 17:15SPEAKER_00: You know, we do have we have good softwares in place and that are automated that can communicate with our customers.
- 17:23SPEAKER_00: That takes a lot of by no means is is our customers, you know, communicating with a machine for everything.
- 17:31SPEAKER_00: Like Whitney, she's very good about answering the phone.
- 17:34SPEAKER_00: This is my partner in the business as well.
- 17:37SPEAKER_00: And she's she's very good with handling the customers and the admin side of everything.
- 17:41SPEAKER_00: So that takes a lot off of my plate.
- 17:44SPEAKER_00: But we also have a a very good software system that is specifically designed for dumpster rentals.
- 17:52SPEAKER_00: So when a customer books a dumpster, for example, a residential customer can book, I mean, anybody can book online, but typically the residential customers are the ones that are booking online most often, at least for me.
- 18:06SPEAKER_00: So they can book online, they can pick where they want their dumpster at on our website through the booking process, and it'll text them it when we're on the way.
- 18:18SPEAKER_00: It'll text them when we're on the way to drop it off, on the way to pick it up, it'll give them reminders the day before drop-off and the day before pickup.
- 18:25SPEAKER_00: And it it basically automates everything, which you know takes a lot, takes a lot off of our plate as well.
- 18:31SPEAKER_00: And it it just ups the communication with the customer.
- 18:34SPEAKER_00: Our commercial customers typically they want to talk to us.
- 18:38SPEAKER_00: Like I said, those are some pretty strong relationships that you build because they're it's pretty repetitive.
- 18:45SPEAKER_00: So they typically book over the phone, but they'll still, you know, get the same text alerts, get the same communication from me, if not from our system.
- 18:54SPEAKER_00: So that helps a lot.
- 18:58SPEAKER_04: Now, about how many hours a week are you personally working in the business right now?
- 19:03SPEAKER_00: Oh man.
- 19:04SPEAKER_00: To be honest, I don't even know.
- 19:09SPEAKER_00: I mean, we start pretty early in the morning, between five and six.
- 19:14SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I'm not done with the last dumpster until 7, 7:30 at night.
- 19:20SPEAKER_00: Other days, you know, the lighter days, I'm still spending the that same amount of time, you know, updating our website, feeding our SEO, our Google My Business, our Facebook pages, all of our stuff.
- 19:34SPEAKER_00: We do a lot of it in-house.
- 19:36SPEAKER_00: We do have a SEO, uh like an ads manager for our market for some of our marketing, but a lot of that stuff I still do myself as well.
- 19:47SPEAKER_00: So I would say I'm definitely getting really far high up there.
- 19:53SPEAKER_00: Uh, it's definitely not a 40-hour a week job.
- 19:56SPEAKER_00: I mean, I think uh most business owners, no matter what industry you get in, you're gonna put in a lot more time in 40 hours.
- 20:03SPEAKER_04: So yeah.
- 20:04SPEAKER_04: And and and like you said, and I've heard this from a lot of business owners that you know, even when you're not actively working, you you could be it could be a Saturday night and you're replying to an email or you're responding to a text that has something to do with work.
- 20:15SPEAKER_04: So that counts as work still, because you're oh for sure.
- 20:18SPEAKER_04: So it never ends.
- 20:20SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, I mean, and that's the thing, even you know, 10 o'clock at night, I can have I've had customers call at 10 o'clock at night and need a dumpster the very next morning.
- 20:29SPEAKER_00: And if that if that happens, that's that's what we'll do.
- 20:32SPEAKER_00: There's also an emergency side in the dumpster rental world where, for example, like truck rollovers, truck accidents on the highway, like those are those are considered emergency dumpsters.
- 20:45SPEAKER_00: They can that can happen in the middle of the night.
- 20:47SPEAKER_00: So if your phone rings in the middle of the night and they need a dumpster now, are you gonna take it or are you gonna make them wait until the morning?
- 20:54SPEAKER_00: Here, us, we're gonna take it.
- 20:57SPEAKER_00: So, you know, that's that's how that's kind of what sets us apart from a lot of other dumpster companies who want to stay strictly in that like eight to five time frame.
- 21:10SPEAKER_04: So yeah.
- 21:12SPEAKER_04: Now, you know, and how many employees do you have working for you right now?
- 21:16SPEAKER_00: As of this moment, it's just me and my wife Whitney.
- 21:21SPEAKER_00: However, we are in the process right now of hiring our first employee.
- 21:25SPEAKER_00: So uh that's another, you know, like I said, it I struggled with is it time or is it not time to make that jump?
- 21:33SPEAKER_00: But like I said, it's it's definitely time.
- 21:35SPEAKER_00: It'll help us service our customers better, you know, and take us to the next level.
- 21:41SPEAKER_00: So here soon we should have another, you know, driver.
- 21:45SPEAKER_04: Another driver with you, yeah.
- 21:47SPEAKER_04: Okay.
- 21:47SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 21:48SPEAKER_04: So, you know, obviously we uh, you know, so I can ask this question, but I'll ask it kind of a little differently for you.
- 21:53SPEAKER_04: Because I usually would ask this as an employee side, right?
- 21:56SPEAKER_04: But since you don't have any employees yet, I'll kind of just think of this just for you to kind of be a little bit vulnerable and tell me what you think.
- 22:01SPEAKER_04: So what do you think is your greatest strength as a business owner or leader?
- 22:07SPEAKER_00: Uh well, uh as I'm you know, learning how to be a leader, and and I mean, thankfully I have a lot of experience where I worked with other people as a team player.
- 22:20SPEAKER_00: Uh so you know, in my in my transportation uh experience for Before.
- 22:27SPEAKER_00: So my experiences have kind of taught me how the transportation industry works.
- 22:34SPEAKER_00: So, you know, I'm very grateful that I have that experience because it's it's I now I feel like I have the knowledge to be able to step into the role of leadership, especially owner, you know, as a owning my own business.
- 22:50SPEAKER_00: I've been doing it myself for the last year and a half.
- 22:53SPEAKER_00: So I kind of I'm fresh.
- 22:56SPEAKER_00: Like, you know, when I'm stepping out of the truck and giving it to somebody else, I'm kind of like fresh out of it.
- 23:02SPEAKER_00: So I I kinda I can feel their pain.
- 23:04SPEAKER_00: I know what they're going through out there every day.
- 23:06SPEAKER_00: So I think that's I've kind of set myself up to be able to step into a leadership role with with, you know, a little more comfortability to be able to guide somebody else into doing what I'm doing every day.
- 23:19SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 23:20SPEAKER_02: Okay.
- 23:21SPEAKER_04: Now, and on the flip side of that, you know, what business or leadership skill are you consciously trying to get better at right now, you know, probably the thing that I really want to like work on as I as I grow and as I bring on employees that, you know, I'm ultimately responsible for providing their, you know, their hours, making sure they're able to provide for themselves.
- 23:50SPEAKER_00: So I'm sure you can imagine as a new business, you kind of start and you kind of work your way through and learn how to do things as you go.
- 24:00SPEAKER_00: So I over the over time, I I really want to get into, you know, having certain operating procedures that when things do arise for like a driver out in the field, we kind of already have a a plan as to how that's gonna play out.
- 24:20SPEAKER_00: And so they're not just sitting out there like, well, I don't know what to do.
- 24:23SPEAKER_00: So, you know, that's kind of that's kind of like where I want to, you know, focus on is have, you know, have some operating procedures in place, you know, in preparation for growing the business and having more employees.
- 24:42SPEAKER_04: Okay, okay.
- 24:45SPEAKER_04: All right.
- 24:45SPEAKER_04: So, you know, with the lien operation, you know, you kind of told me it's just you and your wife right now at this point.
- 24:50SPEAKER_04: You're getting ready to hire somebody.
- 24:52SPEAKER_04: So, you know, hopefully that operation grows, right?
- 24:55SPEAKER_04: Maybe in three or four years you'll have a whole fleet of fleet of trucks and vans and everything.
- 24:59SPEAKER_04: You'll have the whole kit caboodle.
- 25:01SPEAKER_04: That's what I'm saying.
- 25:01SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah, that's the plan.
- 25:02SPEAKER_04: Yeah, sure.
- 25:04SPEAKER_04: Yeah, so hopefully that gets there in a couple of years.
- 25:06SPEAKER_04: But what have you already had to systemize around things like booking, routing, pickup, payments, and customer communication so that everything doesn't depend on you personally to be involved?
- 25:18SPEAKER_04: Oh, or do you have to be personally involved right now?
- 25:21SPEAKER_00: I mean, you do to an extent, but like I said, the like the software that I was talking about before has helped tremendously with that.
- 25:29SPEAKER_00: You know, as far as like our invoicing and our collecting payments, uh, the customer pretty much we've set it up to where I mean the customer, of course, can call and pay over the phone.
- 25:41SPEAKER_00: Dumpster rentals, we don't necessarily take, we don't, we don't really take cash or you know, checks or anything of that nature.
- 25:51SPEAKER_00: So that's kind of automated a lot of that.
- 25:55SPEAKER_00: We do offer other services besides dumpster rentals, such as full service junk removal, demolition, things like that, that we, you know, may take other forms of payment on.
- 26:06SPEAKER_00: So those in in that aspect, those more customizable jobs where we're still pretty hands-on.
- 26:13SPEAKER_00: But as far as the dumpster rentals, that software has really helped us tremendously like streamline the invoicing and the payments and the communication on, you know, and the routing, etc.
- 26:27SPEAKER_00: So, and that on that side of things, that's been a huge help.
- 26:32SPEAKER_00: But like I said, on the commercial side, I mean, on the more customizable side, where you know, we're doing junk removal for a residential customer who doesn't want to fill their own dumpster.
- 26:43SPEAKER_00: They want somebody to come take care of it for them.
- 26:46SPEAKER_00: Or a a contractor who's subcontracting, you know, demolition jobs to us, those are those are more hands-on still.
- 26:54SPEAKER_00: So that's another area that I would like to kind of design like a a template, I guess you would say it to make that quoting and pricing process easier, especially when we send other higher employees that will potentially be quoting those without me there.
- 27:17SPEAKER_02: Okay, okay.
- 27:19SPEAKER_04: Now, where's most of your business coming from today?
- 27:21SPEAKER_04: I'm sure that that software can probably track that.
- 27:23SPEAKER_04: Is it from referrals or or is it from Google or or something else?
- 27:28SPEAKER_00: So we are pretty active on social media as far as like Facebook and our local communities and our local areas.
- 27:36SPEAKER_00: And then yes, we use we do use Google ads.
- 27:39SPEAKER_00: However, for the first, I'd say year, I was really trying to use, you know, the funding that I was funding myself basically in other areas.
- 27:51SPEAKER_00: So I did not use a lot of Google ads in the beginning.
- 27:55SPEAKER_00: However, now I do.
- 27:56SPEAKER_00: A lot of my competition uses Google Ads too.
- 27:59SPEAKER_00: So I'd say a big portion comes from Google Ads, yeah.
- 28:05SPEAKER_00: And then the we got a good portion from Facebook and social media.
- 28:11SPEAKER_00: And then our trucks are like my truck is wrapped.
- 28:15SPEAKER_00: My wife's car is wrapped.
- 28:17SPEAKER_00: So we get and we we're very we try to stay really active in our community.
- 28:24SPEAKER_00: So to get our name out there, I actually Whitney actually left her job before I left mine just to go attend these networking meetings and like networking events to get our name out there.
- 28:37SPEAKER_00: We're also big into BI groups.
- 28:40SPEAKER_00: We're in two of them, and those those have been great for us as well.
- 28:45SPEAKER_04: Okay, okay.
- 28:47SPEAKER_04: Now, you know, let's kind of get into kind of as you grow, right?
- 28:50SPEAKER_04: You just said you're getting ready to hire somebody.
- 28:52SPEAKER_04: So what kind of worries you about that?
- 28:54SPEAKER_04: What worries you more when it comes to finding good people?
- 28:57SPEAKER_04: Is it finding them, training them, trusting them, or keeping them accountable?
- 29:01SPEAKER_04: What worries you the most about that part?
- 29:03SPEAKER_00: I'd say probably finding them first and then trusting them, if I'm being 100% honest, you know, nobody's gonna take care of your stuff the way that you're gonna take care of your stuff, right?
- 29:12SPEAKER_00: So it's you really when they say hire slow and fire fast, I can kind of I can I I kind of see where that I used to think like, oh, that's a pretty harsh statement, but now that I'm in a a position where I do own my own business, like this is my baby, right?
- 29:30SPEAKER_00: So I I I definitely have taken been like I said, I've been very hesitant on whether it's time to hire or not.
- 29:38SPEAKER_00: And I think a big part of that mentally for me is honestly being nervous about handing over, you know, my cut when I put somebody in the driver's seat of the truck.
- 29:50SPEAKER_00: So like right now, if a customer, if a contractor called, called me and said, Hey, Alex, I need, I need a dumpster here, like right now.
- 29:59SPEAKER_00: I'm like, okay, yeah, no problem.
- 30:01SPEAKER_00: Like, I'll make it happen.
- 30:03SPEAKER_00: So is a, you know, just the thought of a driver, is a driver or another person going to deliver the same customer service that I have that I would.
- 30:14SPEAKER_00: And and what can I do to, you know, set that up for them to want to deliver that same, same uh level of customer service to my customers that has got me to where I am now.
- 30:28SPEAKER_00: So it's really, you know, uh there's good employees out there.
- 30:33SPEAKER_00: I was a good employee for a really long time, you know, before I went and started working for myself.
- 30:38SPEAKER_00: So it's just it's really just I I really think it's a matter of finding, you know, the right person that's gonna be a good team player.
- 30:48SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and that and that's tougher than than it seems, at least these days for sure.
- 30:53SPEAKER_04: I hear from business owners all the time, and then their their biggest thing is it seems like a generational thing.
- 30:58SPEAKER_04: I don't know.
- 30:58SPEAKER_04: I don't know about that, but it does seem like, you know, I don't know, younger people don't want to work as much as or as hard for another company.
- 31:06SPEAKER_04: So I don't know.
- 31:07SPEAKER_04: But uh, you know, it depends on what you'll see.
- 31:09SPEAKER_04: Mm-hmm.
- 31:10SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
- 31:11SPEAKER_04: And everybody wants to be, you know, a a streamer or a TikToker or something or YouTuber.
- 31:17SPEAKER_04: Nobody wants to actually work real jobs anymore.
- 31:19SPEAKER_04: It just it seems like it's interesting.
- 31:21SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 31:21SPEAKER_00: I noticed that even, you know, before I left my job, the company that I worked for would be, you know, they try to hire drivers, and it just seemed like I was there for a really long time.
- 31:34SPEAKER_00: So, you know, in the beginning, it was they would get drivers, and the drivers would, you know, stay for for years and years.
- 31:42SPEAKER_00: I'd stay for a long time.
- 31:44SPEAKER_00: But then like in the last couple of years that I was employed, you know, at these big companies, it's it just seemed like they really had a hard time getting good employees that, you know, wanted to show up or wanted to do a good job and stay with the company.
- 32:00SPEAKER_00: So I I definitely it does seem like it's very generational.
- 32:04SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
- 32:05SPEAKER_03: Yep.
- 32:06SPEAKER_04: All right.
- 32:06SPEAKER_04: So we're gonna head into this or that.
- 32:08SPEAKER_04: So how this works is I'm gonna give you two subjects, this or that.
- 32:11SPEAKER_04: And I want you to choose one of them and then kind of get give me the reason why you chose it.
- 32:14SPEAKER_04: It's kind of a a good way to break up the business talk and kind of get into your personal side a little bit.
- 32:19SPEAKER_00: Okay.
- 32:20SPEAKER_04: All right.
- 32:21SPEAKER_04: Beaches or mountains?
- 32:23SPEAKER_04: You kind of go to both, so I'm interested in this.
- 32:25SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 32:26SPEAKER_00: Okay.
- 32:27SPEAKER_00: So to for a living, like to live in, it's definitely the beach for me.
- 32:32SPEAKER_00: I don't want to be landlocked permanently.
- 32:35SPEAKER_00: But vacation, I will take the mountains.
- 32:38SPEAKER_04: But we're not landlocked.
- 32:40SPEAKER_04: It's like three and a half hours away.
- 32:41SPEAKER_04: It's not that bad.
- 32:42SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
- 32:43SPEAKER_04: That kind of is landlocked a little bit.
- 32:44SPEAKER_04: I mean, it's such a drive.
- 32:45SPEAKER_04: It's a it's a good drive.
- 32:46SPEAKER_04: It's like a day drive.
- 32:47SPEAKER_00: So but yeah, I'm I literally grew up with the water like next, like next to the water my entire life.
- 32:55SPEAKER_00: So the thought of like living more than like 30 minutes away from from the beach or the water is like, I don't know, just feel claustrophobic to me.
- 33:08SPEAKER_04: Coffee or energy drink?
- 33:11SPEAKER_00: Oh man, that's a tough one because I have a serious energy drink problem that I've I've had to stop drinking energy drinks and switch to coffee, but I don't know, man.
- 33:23SPEAKER_00: I think energy drinks is my thing.
- 33:25SPEAKER_00: Like just coffee doesn't do it for me like energy drinks does.
- 33:30SPEAKER_04: It gets you pumped up, right?
- 33:31SPEAKER_04: It gets you that energy.
- 33:32SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
- 33:32SPEAKER_00: Like it says it's like, you know, quick.
- 33:34SPEAKER_00: And then it's like, I don't know, I guess it's something about the carbonation and the and it's cold.
- 33:40SPEAKER_00: So yeah.
- 33:42SPEAKER_04: Early bird or night owl.
- 33:46SPEAKER_00: So for the last however many years that I was driving a truck for a company, our start times were like two, three, between two and five in the morning.
- 33:57SPEAKER_02: Oh my goodness.
- 33:59SPEAKER_00: It was awful.
- 34:00SPEAKER_00: That was probably the worst part of being a truck driver was starting that early.
- 34:04SPEAKER_00: So it kind of forced me to be like a early morning person.
- 34:10SPEAKER_00: However, if you took that job, if you took that experience out of my life, I'd probably be a night owl.
- 34:16SPEAKER_04: Okay.
- 34:17SPEAKER_04: Okay.
- 34:18SPEAKER_04: Sweet or salty?
- 34:21SPEAKER_00: Sweet.
- 34:22SPEAKER_00: I'm a I I have a serious baked good addiction.
- 34:28SPEAKER_00: So sweet treats are definitely my thing.
- 34:31SPEAKER_04: Do you make them or do you just purchase them?
- 34:34SPEAKER_00: No, I just I mean, I love homemade homemade sweets.
- 34:38SPEAKER_00: Like that's the the way to my heart.
- 34:40SPEAKER_00: But but no, I don't I don't bake them myself.
- 34:44SPEAKER_00: I go buy them.
- 34:45SPEAKER_00: I love a like a real authentic Italian bakery.
- 34:48SPEAKER_00: Those that's like one of my favorite favorite things to go to.
- 34:51SPEAKER_04: Yeah, no, I don't blame you.
- 34:53SPEAKER_04: And this is a kind of a two-parter because it could be different for each, right?
- 34:56SPEAKER_04: So phone call or text for your business, and phone call or text personal life.
- 35:03SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 35:04SPEAKER_00: The for the business and probably phone call, just because it's there's I feel like a lot can get lost in translation and a text message.
- 35:11SPEAKER_00: So that's pretty important to me is communication with my customers.
- 35:15SPEAKER_00: So if I can make sure that everybody's on the same page through a phone call and it only takes, you know, 10 minutes, that's that's great.
- 35:24SPEAKER_00: Personal, I guess it just depends on the situation because you know, if it's like a family member, I'll pick up the phone and call them and check on them.
- 35:33SPEAKER_00: But a text message sometimes is a lot it's just a lot easier, more relaxed to get to to communicate.
- 35:40SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
- 35:42SPEAKER_04: Dream vacation or dream home?
- 35:46SPEAKER_00: Probably dream home.
- 35:47SPEAKER_00: I'm pretty when I'm not working, I I'm a homebody.
- 35:50SPEAKER_00: Like I like to enjoy my enjoy my house.
- 35:54SPEAKER_00: So probably probably uh dream home.
- 35:58SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 35:59SPEAKER_02: Dinner out or cook at home?
- 36:05SPEAKER_00: Man, I guess like special occasions.
- 36:07SPEAKER_00: I definitely like to go out to eat.
- 36:09SPEAKER_00: I love like I I'm definitely a foodie.
- 36:12SPEAKER_00: Like, like I said, I loved baked goods, desserts, like food is my thing, so like I like to go, you know, to like nice restaurants and try and get like, you know, some the finer foods that you don't necessarily get every day.
- 36:28SPEAKER_00: However, being when I took that little stint over the road and I was having to eat out every day, all day for all meals, it really took it really made me appreciate like a home cooked meal.
- 36:42SPEAKER_00: So if it's not a special occasion or like, you know, something to celebrate, I kind of like to kind of like to eat at home.
- 36:50SPEAKER_04: Okay.
- 36:51SPEAKER_04: And like you said, you're a homebody too, so right?
- 36:53SPEAKER_04: You don't even have to leave the house.
- 36:54SPEAKER_00: So Yep.
- 36:55SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
- 36:56SPEAKER_04: 15 yard or 30 yard dumpster?
- 36:59SPEAKER_00: Oh, 30 yards.
- 37:01SPEAKER_00: We do a lot of 15 yards.
- 37:03SPEAKER_00: However, the 30 yards, that's the the we get a lot of those, and that's that's kind of what is pushing me to the next step to get into a second truck.
- 37:14SPEAKER_00: So definitely have a love for those.
- 37:19SPEAKER_04: Junk remover or dumpster rental?
- 37:23SPEAKER_00: Probably dumpster rental.
- 37:25SPEAKER_00: It's a lot of people would disagree with that because you know, you can pull up to a junk removal job and not even drop the can off.
- 37:33SPEAKER_00: So you only have to go to the you only have to go to the drop-off point once and you're done with you're done with that job.
- 37:40SPEAKER_00: You do you get paid right away and then you don't you don't have to go back to pick it up.
- 37:44SPEAKER_00: But I don't know.
- 37:47SPEAKER_00: I I just I really like the dumpster rental.
- 37:50SPEAKER_00: It's I think it's because it's you know, it's more similar to what I was doing for so long, like deliveries, drop-offs.
- 37:59SPEAKER_00: Uh it's like kinda in my comfort zone, I guess.
- 38:01SPEAKER_00: So but I I mean I d I like 'em both.
- 38:04SPEAKER_00: But however, the dumpster rental is probably the my main I prefer.
- 38:09unknown: Okay.
- 38:10SPEAKER_03: Netflix or YouTube?
- 38:13SPEAKER_00: Oh, I listen to a lot of YouTube.
- 38:16SPEAKER_00: I listen to a lot of podcasts through YouTube, like during the day when I'm driving, when I'm dropping and picking up dumpsters.
- 38:24SPEAKER_00: That's kind of that's what's playing on my radio.
- 38:26SPEAKER_00: Is I don't really listen to I listen to music, don't get me wrong, but sometimes, you know, the same songs over and over get old.
- 38:33SPEAKER_00: So I put on a little YouTube and and uh do it like that.
- 38:37SPEAKER_00: Listen to other people, yeah.
- 38:39SPEAKER_04: Mm-hmm.
- 38:41SPEAKER_04: Okay, and then perfectly planned day or controlled chaos.
- 38:45SPEAKER_00: Oh probably a little bit of controlled chaos.
- 38:49SPEAKER_00: I think I get bored when everything's like perfectly planned out.
- 38:54SPEAKER_00: So if I can have controlled chaos where it's like sort of planned, but you know, there's like a through through a a few monkey wrenches thrown in to keep you keep you on your toes.
- 39:06SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's fine with me.
- 39:07SPEAKER_02: Yeah, okay.
- 39:09SPEAKER_04: And the last one is one huge commercial account or ten great residential customers.
- 39:16SPEAKER_00: Oh, probably probably the huge commercial account.
- 39:21SPEAKER_00: They say you don't want to put, you know, I agree, you don't want to put all of your eggs into one account.
- 39:28SPEAKER_00: But like I said earlier, as far at least with dumpster rentals, you're gonna get, let's say, the 10 residential accounts.
- 39:37SPEAKER_00: You'll probably get maybe a dumpster every two to three years from them.
- 39:42SPEAKER_00: Whereas the the big commercial account, you can get you know, 200 dumpsters a year from them.
- 39:48SPEAKER_00: So kind of stick with that.
- 39:53SPEAKER_04: Okay, good, good.
- 39:54SPEAKER_04: All right, perfect.
- 39:55SPEAKER_04: So, Allie, I appreciate you getting through that this or that here.
- 39:58SPEAKER_04: So, you know, like I told you earlier, we got a pretty large, you know, entrepreneurial audience here.
- 40:02SPEAKER_04: So I want you to be as candid and as honest as you can on the answer to this next question.
- 40:06SPEAKER_04: So, you know, let's say uh, you know, small entrepreneurs listen to the podcast episode with you today, and let's say they're feeling stuck or overwhelmed, right?
- 40:13SPEAKER_04: They just don't have enough work for their people.
- 40:15SPEAKER_04: Unfortunately, had to lay off one of their best workers, one of their best techs, because they just don't have the work for them and materials cost too much, so they had to lay that guy off, unfortunately.
- 40:24SPEAKER_04: But uh they're feeling stuck or overwhelmed.
- 40:26SPEAKER_04: Business is not going well.
- 40:27SPEAKER_04: What's the piece of advice you'd want to hear, want them to hear from you today?
- 40:32SPEAKER_00: Probably the same advice that people give me.
- 40:34SPEAKER_00: I mean, like I said, I'm pr I'm still pretty new at this, so I'm you know getting my feet wet when it comes to that kind of stuff.
- 40:41SPEAKER_00: But I uh, you know, even just the the the grind of starting a business and like basically like pushing a boulder up a hill, it it it's rough in the beginning.
- 40:55SPEAKER_00: So I would say your business is gonna, you know, ebb and flow as it grows and as you continue to s stay with it, but you just I think I think the biggest thing is just not not giving up, not quitting, like taking it one problem and one solution at a time and just keep going.
- 41:12SPEAKER_00: Just that's that's it.
- 41:14SPEAKER_00: Just keep going.
- 41:16SPEAKER_04: Yeah, no, that's true.
- 41:17SPEAKER_04: That's true.
- 41:18SPEAKER_04: Now, when you look at the opportunities in front of you, you know, which one kind of excites you the most right now?
- 41:23SPEAKER_04: Is it more containers, stronger contractor relationships, commercial accounts, growing junk junk removal and light demolition, or expanding farther across the treasure coast?
- 41:35SPEAKER_00: You know, I gotta be honest, in the beginning, the equipment is like obviously I love trucks, right?
- 41:41SPEAKER_00: I'm a truck driver, I've been a truck driver for a long time.
- 41:44SPEAKER_00: So I love trucks, I love the equipment, the excitement of the new equipment.
- 41:48SPEAKER_00: And in the beginning, that's really like I really what fueled me was like I'm gonna get more cans.
- 41:54SPEAKER_00: And then getting getting more cans was like a huge accomplishment.
- 41:58SPEAKER_00: And it still is, it definitely is.
- 41:59SPEAKER_00: Like the the process of ordering the cans and then going to pick up brand new, freshly painted cans that are branded to your business, is there's it's definitely fulfilling.
- 42:11SPEAKER_00: However, I am really like I have to like ground myself, bring myself back to why I started why I'm doing this instead of because to be let's be honest, like as a truck driver, I was living a comfortable lifestyle.
- 42:26SPEAKER_00: I was making enough money to live comfortably and enjoy life, but it something it wasn't fulfilling me, right?
- 42:32SPEAKER_00: So there's something that made me say, like, this isn't enough for what I want to do.
- 42:37SPEAKER_00: I want to be able to, you know, really make an impact in in my communities and help other people.
- 42:42SPEAKER_00: So that's really what I'm most excited about is yes, growing the business and like all the steps that it takes to get there and the equipment and the perks that come with it, but it's more so about just the excitement of what this business, that it's yes, it's my business, but it's also going to be a business that if everything goes the way that I would like it to, it will really be able to make an impact on other people's lives.
- 43:08SPEAKER_00: Like whether it be, you know, employees who are able to provide for their family later, you know, uh working for me, or whether it be, you know, community events that we're able to sponsor and provide, you know, put out there for our communities, or even just in the two years that we've started, we've been able to team up with some other nonprofit organizations that we've gone in and cleaned out, like completely taking care of hoarder houses that, for example, we had one military veteran who unfortunately her son had some mental mental issues, mental illness issues that he had her locked into one room in her house, and he hoarded her entire house.
- 43:55SPEAKER_00: And she was in that room for close to two years.
- 43:58SPEAKER_03: Two years, yeah.
- 44:00SPEAKER_00: And he would, I mean, he'd bring her food and stuff and everything in there, but she basically had no control.
- 44:05SPEAKER_00: She was she's handicapped, she was in a wheelchair, so she had no control over what her son was doing with the house.
- 44:12SPEAKER_00: Well, long story short, you know, he ended up getting he wasn't there anymore.
- 44:17SPEAKER_00: I don't really know the ins and outs of what happened and what led to that, but he he wasn't there anymore, and she wanted her house back, but she had no financial means of being able.
- 44:26SPEAKER_00: To clean that up.
- 44:28SPEAKER_00: So we teamed up with other, you know, nonprofit organizations and we were able to completely clean that house out and take care of that hoarder situation completely free of charge and that changed that woman's life.
- 44:40SPEAKER_00: And we've been able to do that now for different, you know, we've done in the last two years that we've been in business, we've done two of them free of charge, which are they're huge, you know, we they're they're huge properties that are just completely hoarded out.
- 44:56SPEAKER_00: So, and obviously each one comes with different circumstances.
- 45:01SPEAKER_00: So just being able to to do provide that service for somebody in our community that's right here, that nobody a lot, you know, a lot of people don't even know that that's going on is is really fulfilling.
- 45:15SPEAKER_00: And that's I I just looking, I just really look forward to as I grow being able to do things like that on a much larger scale.
- 45:24SPEAKER_02: Okay, okay.
- 45:26SPEAKER_04: All right.
- 45:27SPEAKER_04: And then the last thing is, you know, I kind of kind of want to want to pick your brain on 90 days.
- 45:31SPEAKER_04: Let's see.
- 45:32SPEAKER_04: So 90 days, we're recording this at the end of August, right?
- 45:34SPEAKER_04: So that 90 days from today would be what around Thanksgiving, give or take?
- 45:38SPEAKER_04: Yes.
- 45:39SPEAKER_04: So Allie, if there were one meaningful thing you could change in your business in the next 90 days, what would it be and why?
- 45:50SPEAKER_02: You know, I'm not sure.
- 45:53SPEAKER_00: Probably just probably the way that you know hopefully this the decisions that I'm being faced with right now, like as far as hiring somebody and as far as growing into a second truck, I just I want that to be, I mean, I I believe that that's gonna be a huge step for us.
- 46:13SPEAKER_00: So within the next 90 days, I think that, you know, those two those two jumps are gonna bring us to a an a space where we can service a much broader, you know, customer base as far as contractors and larger scale projects that are going on, you know, in our area, in our surrounding areas, that maybe we wouldn't have been given a chance to do those right now because we don't have that level of equipment.
- 46:45SPEAKER_00: But once we do have that, you know, sort of equipment here in the next few weeks or month or so, I just I hope that in the next 90 days that we're, you know, servicing a lot larger projects across our area.
- 47:02SPEAKER_04: Okay, okay.
- 47:03SPEAKER_04: All right, perfect.
- 47:04SPEAKER_04: Well, Allie, thank you again for coming on and showing us behind the scenes of building Vero Beach Dumpster Rental.
- 47:10SPEAKER_04: Uh, to everyone listening, be sure to connect with Allie and follow uh Epic Entrepreneurs for more conversations with the people building businesses and communities every day.
- 47:18SPEAKER_04: I did want to ask you here before we let you go ahead and sign off, do you have any last words and kind of what's going on with the with the company and what should people be excited about in the near future?
- 47:26SPEAKER_04: What do you want to leave them with?
- 47:29SPEAKER_00: So my word of advice is if for people out there who have a dream of, you know, or even in like an itch to do something of their own or like do something that they think, you know, would interest them or they'd get enjoyment out of, you just don't worry about, you know, what other people are gonna say.
- 47:48SPEAKER_00: You're gonna have people that are close to you that are probably gonna, you know, doubt you or not take you seriously, or you know, they'll kind of encourage you, but not really, you know, like I said, take it seriously.
- 48:02SPEAKER_00: So but just don't be afraid to make the jump.
- 48:04SPEAKER_00: Like just just start.
- 48:06SPEAKER_00: Like, you don't gotta plan it out, like spend months and months and months planning how you're gonna do everything.
- 48:12SPEAKER_00: Just just put one foot in and and start and take a next step and just keep walking through the process.
- 48:20SPEAKER_00: So, and one day, you know, it can you wake up and it'll be like, How did how did I get here?
- 48:26SPEAKER_00: Oh, well, all those steps you took got you there.
- 48:28SPEAKER_00: So that and then as far as you know, your beach dumpster rental, just we were we're trying to grow our social media presence, you know, and hopefully encourage other people to, you know, start their own businesses or find ways to, you know, give back to their communities as well.
- 48:50SPEAKER_04: All right, perfect.
- 48:52SPEAKER_04: All right, so yeah, really appreciate you again, Allie, for coming on.
- 48:54SPEAKER_04: And, you know, this is Cliff McCray with Action Coast Business Growth Partners, and we'll see you next time.
- 48:59SPEAKER_04: Thank you.
- 49:00SPEAKER_00: Thank you.